The Fruitcake Has Landed

Wednesday December 23rd, 2009

We have to hand it to food photographer Teri Campbell on his unorthodox holiday campaigns surrounding fruitcakes. In years past, he’s challenged his clients to do something clever with the fruitcakes that he’s mailed them, and send him the resulting pictures. One such example (photographed by his client):

In the first year, Teri says he was “a bit concerned when the  first three entries …all showed a fruitcake in the toilet.” Things progressed, however, and last year he held a contest offering the winner $1,000.00 to come up with the best use for this holiday dessert.

My particular favorites are videos from someone who jammed his fruitcake into a model rocket and shot it into the stratosphere, and a film of a dog eating one in its entirety:

This year Teri’s created a book of past favorites as an alternative to shipping the cakes, and he’s using the prize money instead to donate to a charity, Feed America. While I regret the delay in continued fruitcake debauchery, the charitable route is to be applauded. However, Campbell indicates that he’s willing to bring back the cake in the future.

Teri’s day job is photographing more delectable subjects (no offense to fruitcake lovers) for packaging and menus:

Teri shoots out of his palatial Cincinnati studio, which houses almost 10,000 square feet of kitchen, shooting space, rec. rooms with treadmills and pool tables, and this impressive prop room filled with probably thousands of plates of every color and style imaginable:

I plan to share more holiday cards after Christmas, since we’re still receiving them.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!

-Neil Binkley

Judging PDN’s Self Promo Contest

Saturday December 12th, 2009

Danielle Courier just posted an interview with me for the companion website to her upcoming book (coming in February) on portfolio design. Her book’s titled No Plastic Sleeves: The Complete Portfolio Guide for Photographers and Designers.

She was interested to know my thoughts on what makes photography  portfolios and promotions stand out, as I had just judged PDN’s 2009 Self Promo Contest.

My encapsulation of her questions:

• What distinguishes the very best photographer’s promotions from the rest?
• What was most difficult and rewarding about judging the awards?
• How important is it to have a printed portfolio?
• Any advice to emerging artists?

You can see my answers on her site, but my overarching theme was that photographers should only show their best work, they shouldn’t try to promote twenty different types of specialties (because most can excel at 2 or 3, max – and that’s fine), and they should be open to feedback from clients, peers and consultants.

Danielle asked the same questions of another PDN Self Promo judge, Robin Milgrim, who is art director with R&R Partners and who’s worked on the Las Vegas Tourism, “What Happens here Stays Here” account.

I enjoyed that her responses had a strong point of view, and this one stood out to me. When asked about the importance of print portfolios, Robin replied:

Make it as good as you can. No excuses. If you don’t love it, don’t put it in your book. If you don’t have enough solid work, make more. Learn to edit yourself. Remember who your audience is. Consider what would appeal to them. Take them for a ride. Entertain. It’s a word often forgotten at the convergence of art and commerce.

The rest of the website seems to showcase a nice selection of design and photography portfolios and promos, so I recommend a peek.

-Neil Binkley

Bill Cramer’s APA/NY Talk

Wednesday November 11th, 2009

As previously posted, photographer Bill Cramer was invited to speak about his work by APA/NY. His talk took place at the fashionably-macintoshed Apple Soho store on Monday. Several Wonderful Machiners accompanied Bill (including another Philadelphia photographer, Shea Roggio).

The event attracted a packed house of photographers and industry folks who came to see Cramer discuss his thoughts on the world of marketing and branding photography. David H. Wells also spoke at the event,  just before Bill, discussing his career in documentary photography.

Cramer’s talk began with his own career, and how his portraiture is often a struggle between control and spontaneity. Even though the bulk of his photographs are “staged,” he wants to authentically capture the subject’s personality to help illustrate their story.

Bill mentioned that he shoots plenty of businessmen and celebrities (all found on his website), as well as subjects like these from a beach assignment:

Bill’s talk continued with his suggestions for how photographers can successfully improve their branding and marketing. To make these points, he first showed several photographers whose branding was consistent across their website, emaill and print promos, letterhead and portfolio.

Bill  showed Terry Vine’s work first, whose particularly ambitious print promotions include a wooden box with seven individual pamphlets, each on a separate theme:

Cramer went on to show the universe of marketing options that photographers should take advantage of, ranging from passive marketing (like online sourcebooks) to direct marketing (telephone calls, portfolio meetings, etc.).

Bill’s overarching theme is that photographers should have a consistent body of work, and one that doesn’t try to be a “scrapbook” of twenty different specialties. Art buyers and photo editors are trying to minimize the  risk they’re taking when they work with a new photographer. And in a crowded marketplace, he feels that it’s essential to clearly present what you’re good at, and not try to be the right photographer for every type of assignment.

In addition, Cramer suggests that photographers show only the type of work that they’d like to be hired for. For a fulfilling career path, they should seek work that combines what they’re good at doing, what they like to do, and what the marketplace wants from them.

There’s more to Bill’s talk, and fortunately he’s shared a link for anyone to view or download his presentation and review the images and many resources that he discussed on Monday: www.wonderfulmachine.com/apa. He’s planning to create a podcast from the talk, as well, so stay tuned.

The irony of a blog post about marketing photography is that our regular camera wasn’t working and we had to use our new staff member Caleb’s iPhone. Which, all things considered, is better than having no images to share.

Pictured above are Mary Dail, rep and owner of Big Leo, home to a cadre of food and still life photographers. Also shown is Kristina Feliciano, the talented blogger for Stockland Martel’s site. We also had a nice conversation with VH1′s Daniella Nilva-Cunningham. They caught up with Bill after his talk.